PSST! Want to Graduate from College with an Undergraduate Degree and No Debt?

Featured Author:

Mark Kantrowitz

As a nationally recognized financial aid expert, Mark has been called to testify before Congress about student aid on several occasions.

He has served as a guest columnist for the New York Times and the Huffington Post and has been interviewed regularly by major news outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, MSN, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, CNBC and more.

Mark is the author of five books, including three about student aid. His most recent book, Secrets to Winning a Scholarship, helps families find and win scholarships. He is also on the editorial board of the Council on Law in Higher Education and the editorial board of the Journal of Student Financial Aid, a member of the board of directors of the National Scholarship Providers Association and a member of the board of trustees of the Center for Excellence in Education.

Mark is ABD on a PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and holds Bachelor of Science degrees in mathematics and philosophy from MIT and a Master of Science degree in computer science from CMU.

A recent research report analyzes the characteristics of the 1.7
million undergraduate students who were able to graduate in 2007-08
without any student loan debt. About two fifths of undergraduate
students graduate with no debt and three fifths graduate with less
than $10,000 in student loan debt.

This analysis yields seven practical tips on what you should do if you
want to graduate with an undergraduate degree and little or no debt.

Enroll at an in-state public college. 85% of undergraduate
students who graduate with no debt graduated from public colleges,
with almost 78% graduating from an in-state public college. State
appropriations help public colleges keep tuition low for state
residents.

Do not enroll at a for-profit college. Less than 7% of
students enrolled in for-profit colleges graduated with no debt,
compared with 30% at non-profit colleges and 51% at public colleges.

Enroll in a 2-year or shorter program. Half of students who
graduate with no debt graduated from a community college. (A third
graduated from a public 4-year college.) 61% of students receiving an
Associate’s degree from a public college graduated with no debt. 68%
of students receiving a Certificate from a public college graduated
with no debt. This compares with slightly more than a third of
students receiving a Bachelor’s degree.

Enroll in a low-cost college. 88% of students who graduate
with no debt graduated from a college with tuition and fees under
$10,000. 57% graduated from a college with a total cost of attendance
under $10,000 and 86% graduated from colleges with a total cost of
attendance under $20,000.

Spend less on textbooks. Three quarters of students who
graduate without debt spent $1,000 or less per year on
textbooks. There are many ways of
cutting the cost of college textbooks,
such as buying used books, buying textbooks online and selling
textbooks back to the bookstore at the end of the semester.

Live at home with your parents. Students who live at home with
their parents are more likely to graduate without debt than other
students. (Better to live at home while enrolled in college than to be
forced to live at home after graduating from college because of too
much debt.)

Choose your parents wisely. 56% of upper-income
undergraduate students graduated with no debt, compared with 36% of
low-income students and 45% of middle-income students. Students whose
parents have advanced degrees are more likely to graduate without
debt, probably because their parents have higher average income. More
than two thirds of students who graduated without debt receive help
paying for tuition and fees from their parents. A small percentage of
students graduated with no federal or private student loan debt
because their parents borrowed from the Parent PLUS loan program
instead.